01 The Story

We Are What We Are: The Other Ones’ 1987 Hot 100 Entry

The Other Ones were a West German synth-pop group whose brief but notable appearance on the American charts in 1987 illustrated the international reach of the MTV-era dance-pop format. The band was led by Michael Riesenbeck, who wrote and produced the group’s material and served as the primary creative force behind their recordings. Operating out of Germany at a time when European electronic pop acts were finding considerable success in the United States and United Kingdom, The Other Ones crafted a sound that aligned closely with the commercially dominant synth-pop aesthetic of the mid-1980s.

“We Are What We Are” was released in 1987 and represented the group’s most significant American chart moment. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 on April 18, 1987, debuting at position 91. Over the following weeks it climbed steadily, moving from 91 to 78 to 67 to 60 before reaching its peak of number 53 on May 30, 1987. The track spent a total of 9 weeks on the Hot 100, a solid run for an act without an established American profile.

The track was released through Virgin Records in several markets, benefiting from the label’s established distribution infrastructure and promotional networks across Europe and North America. Virgin had become an important conduit for European pop and electronic acts seeking American exposure during the 1980s, and The Other Ones were among the beneficiaries of that infrastructure. The promotional strategy for “We Are What We Are” included a music video that received rotation on MTV, which in 1987 remained one of the primary discovery mechanisms for new acts in the American market.

The sound of “We Are What We Are” fits squarely within the parameters of late-period 1980s synth-pop. The production employs the synthesizer textures, programmed drum patterns, and glossy production values that defined the genre during this era. European synth-pop acts including Alphaville, Modern Talking, and Falco had already demonstrated to American audiences that German-language or German-produced pop could achieve mainstream crossover, and The Other Ones’ sound was positioned to appeal to listeners familiar with that aesthetic.

The lyrical content of the track engages with themes of identity and self-definition, framing individual authenticity as a form of resistance to external pressure or social conformity. This thematic territory was common in mid-1980s pop, reflecting a cultural moment in which questions of personal identity, youth culture, and social belonging occupied significant space in mainstream entertainment. The direct, declarative title phrase functioned as a compact statement of self-affirmation that could resonate with a broad audience.

Michael Riesenbeck’s production approach reflected his fluency in the contemporary European electronic music landscape. Germany had been a center of electronic music innovation since the early 1970s, with artists like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, and later New Order-influenced acts establishing the country as an important node in the development of synthesizer-based popular music. The Other Ones operated within a commercial rather than experimental tradition, but their production bore clear markers of the broader German electronic music culture from which they emerged.

The band’s chart success in 1987 was not replicated in subsequent years, and they remained primarily a one-moment phenomenon in the American market. However, their Hot 100 entry at number 53 represented a meaningful achievement for an act without prior American chart presence, and “We Are What We Are” continues to be cited in retrospective discussions of European synth-pop’s American commercial footprint during the 1980s. The track has accumulated streaming and YouTube views that suggest an audience maintaining interest in the aesthetic of late-1980s European dance-pop.

The context of 1987 American radio and MTV programming is important for understanding the track’s reception. That year saw a marketplace that was beginning to shift from pure synth-pop toward harder-edged sounds (hair metal was at its commercial peak) while also sustaining strong commercial interest in polished, dance-oriented pop. “We Are What We Are” occupied a middle space that found enough radio and video support to generate a genuine chart run.

02 Song Meaning

Identity and Defiance in “We Are What We Are”

“We Are What We Are” by The Other Ones employs one of the most fundamental rhetorical structures available to popular song: the collective declaration. The use of the first-person plural “we” rather than the singular “I” immediately positions the track as something beyond individual expression, framing it as a statement made on behalf of a group, a generation, or a constituency. This grammatical choice carries significant meaning, transforming what might otherwise be a personal confession into something closer to a communal manifesto.

The lyrical core of the song centers on the concept of unqualified self-acceptance. The phrase “we are what we are” functions as a tautology, a statement that resists external definition by asserting that the subjects of the song are defined by nothing more and nothing less than their own existence. This kind of tautological self-definition is a rhetorical strategy for deflecting criticism or social pressure: by refusing to define themselves in relation to anything external, the speakers of the song assert an autonomy that is immune to external judgment.

Within the context of mid-1980s European youth culture, this message carried particular resonance. The decade was characterized by significant social and cultural turbulence, including debates around nuclear armament, economic inequality, and the shifting cultural identities of young people in Western Europe. Songs that asserted collective identity and resilience against conformist pressure spoke to a genuine psychological need among younger audiences who experienced those pressures as tangible constraints.

The synth-pop musical setting contributes to the meaning in ways that are not incidental. The genre had developed in part as a cultural response to the perceived excess and self-indulgence of late-1970s rock, offering instead a cooler, more cerebral aesthetic that was associated with modernity, technology, and a kind of studied detachment. Within this aesthetic context, a declaration like “we are what we are” carries an additional valence: it is delivered from within a sonic world that itself embodies a particular kind of self-conscious cultural positioning.

Michael Riesenbeck’s production gives the declaration a glossy, confident surface that matches the lyrical stance. The arrangement does not hedge or qualify; it presents its statement with the same directness that the lyrics assert. This alignment between musical production style and lyrical content is a mark of compositional coherence, ensuring that the sonic and textual dimensions of the song reinforce rather than contradict each other.

The track also participates in a broader tradition of pop songs that use simplicity as a strength. By building around a single, easily memorable phrase, “We Are What We Are” prioritizes immediate comprehension and emotional identification over lyrical complexity. This directness made the song accessible across linguistic and cultural boundaries, which was practically important for a German act seeking crossover success in the English-language American market. The universal legibility of the central idea, that people have the right to exist on their own terms, required no translation.